Approaching Catalina Island

We spent the first night on Catalina at Cat Harbor on the far side of Catalina from the mainland. Contrary to previous years, Cat Harbor is now filled with mooring balls, leaving only one or two corners of the harbor in which to anchor and then in deeper water and and resulting in a long dinghy ride ashore. This seems like a money extraction scheme, but a foolish one as in the long term, it will just deter visitors.  After the early start and a long day, we reluctantly chose a mooring ball, still aways from the dinghy dock, but with a shorter ride ashore. By the time we got there, most things had already closed up shop for the evening, but we enjoyed the walk into town, the lonesome buffalo and the view on both sides of the Isthmus.

At Cat Harbor

Two Harbors Panorama

The following day we sailed around the southern end of Catalina – the long way around. The morning started nicely with a freshening breeze from the south, but as the day wore on and we rounded the south-eastern end of the island, the swells increased and the wind dropped, forcing us to revert to the “Yanmar Spinnaker” to get us around the point and heading back north. We skipped Avalon and headed instead to White’s Cove, passing Arvid and Annika in Inspare as they left. White’s Cove was very quiet and we went ashore to share a beer with Mike, getting more than a little soaked re-lauching the dinghy in the dark.